Vice Admiral

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Vice Admiral (中将 , Chūjō) is a Marine rank of three star level, equivalent to Lieutenant General in seniority. A Vice Admiral is typically senior to a Rear Admiral and junior to an Admiral.

The Vice Admiral position is the third highest post in the Marines and currently the one with most representatives seen in the series (before five named Captains) besides common, unnamed grunt soldiers. The highest seen position below a Vice Admiral is that of a Rear Admiral.

Their duties are different from those of common Marine commanders, as is for instance that of commanding 2 out of 10 Buster Call ships. However, one Vice Admiral, John Giant, is seen to have some special authority, as he was the first in the entire Marine Headquarters to receive the report of the Buster Call and could also evidently command other Vice Admirals to dispatch. At least ten of them (John Giant, Momonga, Komir, Onigumo, Doberman, Strawberry, Tsuru, Lacroix, Ronse, and Yamakaji) are known to be stationed in the Marine Headquarters.

The general attire of a Vice Admiral is that of a Marine coat with epaulets and a suit and tie worn below. The only Vice Admiral to wear an attire different from others is, again, John Giant, who wears a gold and red uniform with a strain of medals on his chest. While most Vice Admirals wear standard blue epaulets, Garp wears black and red, while Tsuru wears gold.

It would seem that most Vice Admirals are swordsmen and several have been shown using Rokushiki. Many Giants who are shown to be Marines are Vice Admirals, a testament of their immense strength. Another attribute that is common among Vice Admirals is that they all know Haki,[1] though almost none have been shown using it in obvious ways yet.

Vice-Admiral Tsuru (つる中将 Tsuru Chūjō) the “Great Tactician” is one of Sengoku’s direct subordinates at the base in the Sanctuary of Mariejois.

Tsuru is a thin and elderly woman (similar in appearance to Dr. Kureha, but older-looking, yet probably younger) with gray hair tied in a bun. Her attire appears to be less formal than the ones worn by other high-ranking officers, consisting of a shirt left hanging out, with the sleeves rolled up and a tie around her neck, and calves-long pants, which somehow make her resemble the animal of her name, the crane. She sports earrings made of beads, and on her right wrist she has two bracelets.

Twenty-seven years ago, she had blonde hair and sported a similar attire; however, she was still wrinkled, suggesting that she is very old.

A veteran marine who is not without wisdom for her age. She seems extremely knowledgeable; she knew who set the Marines to fight each other in the Marine and Shichibukai meeting when all others thought the two were simply messing around, and knew who Laffitte was on sight. She is not above telling off the younger marines that show concern for her well being when she steps up to fight the incoming pirates at Marine HQ. She then justifies her being on the front line with the other Vice-Admirals by stating there is no longer a safe place left in the world for her to run to anyway. According to Garp, she is a kind-hearted woman which it doesn’t show very often in the manga or the anime.

Tsuru is a Marine who is well skilled in strategy, earning her the nickname “Great Tactician”.

It was stated that all Vice Admirals possess Haki,[1] so Tsuru can also use the ability. However, she has not yet been shown using it.

Tsuru ate the Whoshu Whoshu no Mi,[2] a Devil Fruit that allows her to literally “wash and hang out to dry” people and objects as if they were clothes.[3] This disables the opponents by rendering them unable to move. This can also “clean” a limited amount of evil off of the victims, which is considered a dangerous ability against pirates.

John Giant

Vice-Admiral John Giant (ジョン・ジャイアント中将 Jon Jaianto Chūjō) is one of the marine officers in the Marine Headquarters. His name and rank are revealed in One Piece Yellow. He is the first giant to be revealed in the series however his race was revealed much later than his initial appearance.[1]

John Giant is a giant, and towers over regular soldiers by several times.[1] He wears a red hat with the Marine’s symbol on it, and a variation of the standard Marine coat with yellow colorings, red borders, and medals adorned on the left side. Unlike other high-ranking Marines, he wears his Marine coat with his arms in the sleeves. Underneath that, he wears an orange shirt, simple loose pants and boots. Overall, he appears to be a well decorated Marine. In the anime, he is shown to have curly brown hair.

John is a Giant, which grants him strength and endurance that is several times greater than that of an average human. He is a swordsman, with a katana that fits his size. However, his skills cannot be determined as he fought against the powerful Whitebeard but was quickly defeated.

It was stated that all Vice Admirals possess Haki, so John can also use the ability.[2] However, he has not yet been shown using it.

Komir is a tall, massive man with a bald top, but blonde spiky hair flowing downwards on the back of his head, similarly to Shiki. He has a mustache and is rather dark-skinned. His mustache looks like what one usually gets after drinking milk.

He dresses in the typical garb of many high-ranking Marines: he sports a red, double-breasted suit over a dark-green shirt with a green tie, and has a Marine coat hanging from his shoulders like a cape.

Komir seems to be a believer of Moral Justice, as he let Portgas D. Ace escape after he saved one of his men and some important sheets from a burning ship. He cares deeply for his subordinates, assisting the one Ace saved from the fire as soon as he could. He also seems to enjoy even little things, smiling happily after Moda got him some milk to make the coffee served in his base tastier.

As a Vice-Admiral, Komir is capable of commanding a Buster Call alongside four other Vice-Admirals. As the commander of the Naval Base G-2, he possesses authority over the lower-ranking subordinates.

He is seen carrying two swords, a pair of katanas, attached to his right hip, in a similar fashion to Zoro or ancient samurais.

It was stated that all Vice Admirals possess Haki,[1] so Komir can also use the ability. However, he has not yet been shown using it.

Momonga is a man with a mohawk and a mustache. He wears the standard Marine uniform, consisting of a purple and white pinstripe suit with a coat draped over his shoulders, much like Kizaru. Underneath, a dark blue shirt and a light blue tie. He is of average height and very well built. He carries around his weapon of choice, a katana, either attached to his right hip or on his shoulder, and the tsuba has an eight-petaled flower design. Two years later, he is shown wearing a Marine cap.

27 years ago Momonga looked the same, except his mustache was much longer and thinner, and his mohawk was arranged in a different style, pointing forward.

Momonga is very serious. He is stern and deadset on completing all of his mission. As of yet, it is uncertain what type of “Justice” he follows, although it appears to be sincerely concerned on the welfare of his subordinates. Though he is sometimes easily annoyed by their incompetence, as seen when they quickly fell for Hancock’s charms. He is apparently instinctive being that he figured out what would happen and a way to block the effects of Boa Hancock’s Mero Mero Merrow beam in mere seconds, but even he is not immune to her beauty.[3]

As a Vice-Admiral within the Marines, Momonga has respect and abilities in both mind and body. When he waited to collect Hancock, he had killed a Sea King from the inside. Similarly, he was able to block Hancock’s Devil Fruit abilities by stabbing a knife in his hand, using pain to block the lust that consumed the rest of his crew and turned them into stone. Hancock stated that it was his experience that prevented him from being affected by her power.[4] Momonga also leaves Hancock with a warning that even without his men he was still dangerous.

Strawberry is a relatively straight shaped person with a long beard. He is usually seen with his eyes closed, or at least half-closed. He wears what looks like a very long bearskin version of the standard Marine uniform cap. Like many high-ranking Marines, he has a standard Marine’s coat draped on his shoulders like a cape. Under it, and over a shirt left unbuttoned near the neck, he wears a water-green jacket, with rope-like ornaments on the chest, and matching pants.

Not much is known about Strawberry’s personality except that he is an honorable man, saving everyone trapped on Enies Lobby before attacking. Presumably, he follows a moral justice, or at least a more lenient version of Absolute Justice like most Marines.

As a Marine Vice-Admiral, Strawberry is capable of commanding a Buster Call alongside four other Vice-Admirals. He also has authority over lower-ranking subordinates.

Strawberry was shown holding two identical swords, with Japanese-looking hilts wrapped in a pink material. They have elongated handguards decorated by red gems, just like the rounded pommels, and blades with more of a curve than those of katanas. He wielded both of them in reverse, similar to Doma.

It was stated that all Vice Admirals possess Haki,[2] so Strawberry can also use the ability. However, he has not yet been shown using it.

Yamakaji

Vice-Admiral Yamakaji (ヤマカジ中将, Yamakaji Chūjō)[1] is a Marine officer, and one of the five Vice-Admirals who led the Buster Call on Enies Lobby.

He’s usually seen smiling almost all of the time, even during a Buster Call. He is also a smoker of cigars, just as Onigumo smokes cigarettes. His eyes are always closed and he has a thick brown beard that covers his large chin. Twenty years ago, he looked exactly the same, except that he didn’t have a beard yet. In Enies Lobby, he was seen wearing a double-breasted orange suit with a dark red tie underneath with a yellow shirt with purple polka dots. From Opening 13 on , however, his suit’s color was changed to dark brown, his tie was changed to black and the polka dots on his shirt to red. Like most high-ranking Marine officers, he wears his coat like draped on his shoulders like a cape.

Twenty years ago, he looked exactly the same, except that he didn’t have the beard, but only some shave hair on his chin. He wore a orange suit over a white shirt with a red tie, and already had his Marine cape and hat.

As a Vice-Admiral, Yamakaji is capable of commanding a Buster Call alongside four other Vice-Admirals. He also has authority over the lower-ranking soldiers of the Marines. He has also been seen wielding a katana during battle.

Doberman has many X-shaped scars on his face and neck. His left eye is blank without any iris. Due to the way Doberman is drawn in the manga, it looks as if his left eye is completely missing with only an open eye socket in it’s place. He has a mustache and brown flowing hair, reaching down to his shoulders. His Marine coat, draped on his shoulders like a cape, is more elaborate than the ones worn by other high-ranking officers, and the stripes across his cap are in a zig-zag pattern. Underneath his coat he sports an outfit reminiscent of the ones worn by naval officers in the 1600s, composed of a loose shirt with rope-like ornaments on it and suit pants.

In the anime, Doberman is initially shown with his cap’s shadow covering his supposedly empty left eyesocket. Later in the anime, Doberman is just shown with having two normal eyes. Also, while his coat and his shirt were originally depicted as, respectively, red and purple, the coat was later changed to simple white, and the shirt to crimson.

Doberman is a firm believer in Absolute Justice: he ordered the Marines to abandon the injured soldiers and was willing to show Whitebeard’s and Ace’s bodies as trophies to the world. He also claimed that Luffy wasn’t to leave Marineford alive, for being Dragon’s son. Even though he was perceptive enough to see through Spandam’s lie about Robin, Doberman did nothing to stop it.

As a Vice Admiral, Doberman is capable of commanding a Buster Call alongside four other Vice-Admirals. He also has command over lower-ranking subordinates.

During the Marineford arc, he was seen carrying around a katana, wielding it in his left hand, which may suggest that he’s left-handed or ambidextrous.

It was stated that all Vice Admirals possess Haki,[2] so Doberman can also use the ability. However, he has not yet been shown using it.

Onigumo is a tall man with a scary-looking face and his eyes always semi-closed. He is usually seen smoking a cigarette, has long brown hair and wears an ancient war helmet with a small, traditional, Japanese dragon on it, and a long red plume hanging from it. Under his Marine coat he wears a double-breasted gray suit over a dark green shirt with a silver tie. He also has a golden loop earring on his left ear.

Onigumo is a firm believer of the Absolute Justice philosophy, and is willing to sacrifice anything to defeat what is defined as “evil”. This was shown when a soldier pleadingly argued against Onigumo’s order of destroying a fellow Buster Call ship and 1000 comrades just to kill Monkey D. Luffy, which led Onigumo to shoot him in cold blood.[3]

Despite his calm exterior at such moments, he is capable of rage and shock, as when the Buster Call failed, and when Monkey D. Garp was defeated by his grandson, respectively.

As a Marine Vice Admiral, Onigumo is capable of commanding a Buster Call alongside four other Vice-Admirals. He also used a flintlock to shoot a soldier for questioning the doctrine of “Absolute Justice“.

Unlike most other Vice-Admirals, Onigumo seems to prefer sabers, rather than katanas. Using both of his hands and with the aid of his six spider-like appendages, he’s capable of wielding eight sabers at the same time.

It was stated that all Vice Admirals possess Haki,[4] so Onigumo can also use the ability. However, he has not yet been shown using it.

Onigumo apparently ate some sort of Zoan Devil Fruit that allows him to grow three pairs of spider-like black arms and a spider abdomen from his back. With these spider-like appendages and his own two human arms, he is capable of wielding a total of eight sabers, in a similar fashion to Hatchan‘s Six Sword Style.[5] These spider-like arms seem to be produced from his elongated hair.

He is one of the few giants seen thus far that does not have unusual facial features or a beard. Like many giants, he has a large, bulky belly. He wears a Marine hat and a one piece suit with his sleeves rolled up, with a purple tie. Like all high-ranking Marines, he wears a standard Marine coat draped over his shoulders.

As a Giant Vice Admiral, he has power and authority over a great deal of the Marines below him. Because he is a giant, he is extremely strong. He was capable of easily surviving gunfire and cannon shots from enemy ships. He carries a sword but his skill with it is unknown thus far.

It was stated that all Vice Admirals possess Haki,[1] so Lacroix can also use the ability. However, he has not yet been shown using it.

Ronse is a giant who wears what appears to be a Medieval helmet with a ‘T’ shaped visor and has long dark hair. His Marine coat is white with red wrist cuffs and a pair of steel pads are positioned on his shoulders. Beneath that he wears a gray suit with brown pants and a lighter gray shirt beneath the suit. Around his waist he wears a giant sized fur belt that seems to be where he sheathes his battle-axe. Ronse’s face briefly appears when Whitebeard shatters his helmet with a Quake Bubble, but it is barely visible for the few seconds it is seen.

As a Vice Admiral, Ronse has command over lower-ranking subordinates of the Marines. Battle-wise, Ronse is a Giant, which grants him great strength and endurance that is several times greater than that of an average human. Ronse uses a giant battle-axe to fight.

It was stated that all Vice Admirals possess Haki,[1] so Ronse can also use the ability. However, he has not yet been shown using it.

Johnathan is an orange haired man with black eyebrows and mustache. When in uniform, he wears a typical Marine overcoat with medals and a feathered tricorne.

Johnathan tends to spend the night fishing and is often seen relaxing and meditating, but despite this he is a skilled strategist. He seems to severely dislike broccoli and says “nah” at the end of his sentences on occasion. He cares deeply for his base and his soldiers. This is shown after the Straw Hats escape, he reveals that he had no aspirations of capturing the Straw Hats and merely saw their appearance as a way of bringing his soldiers together and proving to the Marine headquarters that the G-8 base was still important and did not deserve to be decommissioned.

Though he is said to be Akainu‘s protege, he has conflicting morals with his mentor. Akainu is a believer of Absolute Justice who is willing to kill even civilians if it would uphold the peace, whereas Jonathan is more of a believer of Moral justice who is willing to let criminals go regardless of orders depending on the situation.

Johnathan has a loving relationship with his wife, Jessica. Though he gets special treatment when it comes to meals, he unfortunately doesn’t like the meals personally prepared for him by her as they contain a lot of vegetables. He however cannot refuse her cooking. As a result of his wife’s somewhat command over him, his base has a bunch of rules that pertain to eating, such as not leaving any leftovers and brushing your teeth after meals.

As a Marine Vice-Admiral, Johnathan is capable of commanding a Buster Call alongside four other Vice-Admirals. As the commander of G-8, Johnathan commands the entire base and all its Marines stationed there. Johnathan is a skilled thinker and strategist also being a Vice Admiral suggest that he maybe has powerful fighting abilities. He is capable of deducing things that his men don’t immediately figure out when given the right clues. He is also capable of thinking things through to outwit his enemies.

Apart from his abilities as a Marine, he is also a skilled fisherman and chess player.

It was stated that all Vice Admirals possess Haki,[1] so Johnathan can also use the ability. However, he has not yet been shown using it.

Jaguar D. Saul

Former Vice Admiral Jaguar D. Saul (ハグワール･D･サウロ中将, Haguwāru D Sauro Chūjō?) is a giant who first appeared as a castaway on the island of Ohara. He was introduced in Nico Robin‘s flashback during the Enies Lobby arc, and by then he had already defected from the Marines.

As a giant, Saul is many times larger than a human. He has long, orange hair and a big beard that seems to connect around his entire face.

During his time as a Vice Admiral, Saul wore a Marine coat like all other higher-ranking Marines. However, after his defection, he discarded it. When he crash-landed on Ohara, he was wearing a black shirt and gray jeans that were a little tattered. Also, while as a Marine, he had worn the Marine cap, but upon his defection he exchanged it for a cowboy’s hat.

Saul is a big friendly giant who is somewhat shy and timid. While he was loyal to the Marines, he questioned his orders at least twice. This shows that he followed Moral Justice over their code of Absolute Justice. In the end, it was this moral judgment that led him to betraying them. Saul could not see why the Marines would need to slaughter an entire ship of mere Archaeologists, who had no fighting chance against them. He also justified his choice of defending Robin after seeing a fellow Vice-admiral destroy an entire ship of innocent citizens, who held no related crimes to the incident at hand.

Saul is also characterized as having a unique, but awkward laugh (Dereshishishishi) that he finds somewhat embarrassing. He enjoys seeing others laughing and having fun. He encouraged Robin to laugh. [1] Like other D’s before him, he was seen laughing before apparent death.

As a former Marine Vice Admiral, Saul had command over lower-ranking subordinates, as well as lead a Buster Call ship. His defection has cost him this power.

Because he was a Giant, he had almost unbeatable strength. In fact, his Super-Human Strength is even greater than that of most Giants. He could easily lift a Buster Call ship up out of the water to slam it back down and destroy it (a Buster Call ship’s size is several times the size of a Giant at the time. In a way, a Buster Ship is seen as a giant to normal ships).

He has experienced the Grand Line and had seen Devil Fruit users. He even states he was somewhat jealous of their incredible abilities.[2]

It was stated that all Vice Admirals possess Haki, so Saul could also use the ability.[3] However, he was never seen using it.

Garp is a tall and muscular old man with a broad chest. He is bearded and has a scar on his left eye. Due to the fact that he had appeared in Romance Dawn, Version 2 with his face, he wore a dog mask when he was first introduced, so fans would not realize he was Luffy’s grandfather. When this fact was revealed he discarded the mask. Since then, he has only worn the mask on entrances. Garp was also seen smoking cigars.[1] Garp is the only Vice-Admiral with Tsuru to have special shoulder-pads, his are black and red whereas the standard color is blue.

When he was younger, 24 years ago, Garp’s hair and beard were still black, with the sideburns beginning to whiten. He also wore a much darker double breasted suit with a white shirt and a red tie, but he already had the scar above his left eye.

Garp displays an intelligence level that is equivalent to that of Luffy’s; however, Garp seems somewhat more absent-minded than his grandson, possibly due to senility. Due to his hot temper, he is unable to accept excuses (and is really poor at creating his own) and at times likes to enforce his point of view on things with his fist. Garp also has his own laughter style: he adds either Bwa or Wa before the haha part.

He, like his grandsons, has an extreme fondness for food; in his case, donuts and rice crackers.

He also is somewhat of an eccentric person with a rather strange approach to things: rather than entering through doors, he finds that bursting through walls is the cooler thing to do (implying his odd sense of cool). But in the end, will only end up ordering his subordinates to repair the damage he caused.[2]

Garp is a supportive person most of the time as when Shiki claims that the Pirate King will die in the weakest sea is humiliating, Garp in turn says that East Blue is a symbol for peace. When Ace was a troubled kid during his childhood, he asked Garp a question whether he should have been born, Garp told Ace that he will be able to find the answer if he continues living.

Although Garp is loyal to the Marines and wanted his grandsons to become one, in the end he chose family over duty, showing that he follows moral justice. Another irony is that despite what Garp wanted out of his grandsons, he entrusted their care in that of a criminal, against the moralities of justice. Showing despite being a true believer of Justice, would also turn a blind eye to them as well (such as adopting Ace from Roger and not turning in Dadan and her gang). However, considering that Luffy and Ace seem to speak fondly of Dadan, and Garp did once call her a friend, it can be possible that Dadan isn’t so bad as she is implied to be. Perhaps Garp believed that she didn’t deserve to be punished either way, even though the law demanded it (similar to how Garp saved Ace because he believed Ace didn’t deserve to die, though the law demanded that he should).

Although rather old, Garp still possesses an incredibly-high amount of physical strength. He is able to throw iron cannonballs as if they were baseballs, break through brick walls and cannon stands with his fists, and both carry and throw a gigantic ball and chain many times bigger than the Thousand Sunny. Garp also has a monstrous punching ability at his disposal, with his epithet, “Garp the Fist” vouching for his punch strength.

In addition to his legendary strength, (as seen when he was slashed by Captain Morgan’s axe hand) was able to recover only seconds later, with no obvious pain and apparently being oblivious to the fact he was struck at all. This was due to the fact he fell asleep before he was being attacked. He was able to get back on his feet after being punched by Luffy in Gear Second at point-blank range (the punch was made possible only because Garp allowed Luffy to land the strike) and still able to fight the Blackbeard Pirates along with Sengoku.

He has also been shown to be extremely fast as he managed to bypass all of the Straw Hats and Franky in order to get to a sleeping Luffy, possibly using Soru, although noted at the time his crew were more shocked at Garp’s presence at Water 7. He’s also a “hero” of the Marines and is known for cornering and fighting Gold Roger many times. It is evident Whitebeard respects Garp’s strength as he mentioned him during his talk with Shanks. It should also be noted that Garp is not seen to carry any weapons, aside from the cannonballs that he throws, which implies that he is most likely a hand-to hand fighter.

The extent of Garp’s power is further shown twenty years ago, the year the Pirate King died. It was revealed that he was offered the rank of Admiral more than once, but kept on refusing the promotion. Garp’s subordinate at that time, Vice-Admiral Kuzan (later promoted to Admiral), commented on how cool Garp was for refusing such an irresistible promotion to which he answers by stating that he does not need a higher position, and that it would reduce his liberty to do what he wants. Garp is also well aware of the existence of Haki, as evidenced when his grandson releases the Haōshoku Haki throughout the area.

It was stated that all Vice Admirals possess Haki, so Garp can also use the ability.[6] Because Coby seems to have awakened Kenbunshoku Haki on his own, a Marine doctor recommended that Coby ask Garp how to master it, suggesting he has enough expertise in it to mentor others. However, in East Blue, he failed to predict Morgan‘s sudden attack while being asleep.[7]

So far he’s been seen throwing cannonballs (including a giant one, mounted on a chain) with his bare hands. The cannonballs he threw soared at a faster velocity than when fired out of a cannon, due to Garp’s monstrous strength.

Ai no Kobushi (愛の拳, Fist of Love): A simple but powerful punch that uses Busōshoku Haki to strike both Luffy and Ace on their heads, strong enough to hurt the “rubber man” heavily. It’s a gag technique to “show” his love for his grandsons. He’s been shown to have used this on Ace during his childhood as well.

Genkotsu Meteo (拳・骨・隕石, Iron Fist Meteor): Garp throws a cannonball at an enemy ship. Due to Garp’s Super-Human Strength, he can throw them like baseballs, and the impacts are more powerful than when being fired from an actual cannon.